More Money Tidbits

Del. Phil Hamilton (R) of Newport News emailed me to point out that, in addition to the $180,000 he's got in his campaign account, his leadership PAC, Leading VA Forward, has $78,000 on hand. So his advantage against Democratic challenger Robin Abbott is bigger than I suggested earlier today.

(As an aside, and this is not directed only at you, Phil, but is there a machine that spits out the names of these PACs? How many combinations of the words moving, leading, Virginia, Dominion, forward and together ARE there? An endless number, apparently.)

Secondly, I left out the 34th House District, which runs from McLean to the Loudoun County line along the Potomac River. First-term Democrat Margie Vanderhye raised $70,000 in June, bringing her total on hand to $123,000. But here's the real news: Vanderhye's Republican challenger, Barbara Comstock, raised $44,000 and has $167,000 in the bank.

Phil Hamilton is awesome and probably the most responsive delegate out there (as you can imagine from this post).
Newport News desperately needs a strong voice like Phil's in the house.
It is also worth noting that a huge chunk of his opponent's contributions come from her own law firm while Phil's come from a host of different donors.

I live in HD-34, and while Comstock is raising enough money to be competitive, Vanderhye is a far better fit for the district. It's a liberal-leaning district, it's voted Democratic for almost every major office the past several years, and Comstock is waaaaay too conservative for this electorate.

Margi will have to work to hold the seat, no doubt, but with a good campaign, hold it she will.